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Monday, June 4, 2012

After an awesome weekend with the Jones sisters two weeks
ago and an exciting time with our two good friends in the Midwest just this
past weekend, my most excellent friends John Squires, Jen Carroll and Kristy
Jett, who I met from my blogging endeavors, finally visited my stomping grounds
for a weekend of a legendary proportions. We have always had legendary
experiences when we all got together in the past, but this time was especially
important because this would be the first time they’d be meeting my other half,
Mrs. Man-Cave herself, Jules.

Friday was an appropriate kickoff, with Jules valiantly driving
us in terrible weather to get to The Colonial Theater in Phoenixville. There
were reports of tornadoes in the area, so that was even more worrisome, but we
carried on nonetheless. After meeting up with Kristy and loading up on some
Triple Pale Ales at the Pickering Creek Inn, we headed over to the theater to
view an original 35mm print of the film Popcorn. Now if you don’t know Kristy
Jett, this film means A LOT to her. It’s like Hard Rock Zombies to me, if that
helps gauge things. She was very excited to see the film on the big screen and
delivered a proper introduction to the audience before it started. I have been
living here for close to 8 years now and never learned about The Colonial’s unique
screenings outside of Blobfest every summer - like Italian Horror film fests,
old horror films like A Nightmare on Elm Street IV: The Dream Master and
non-horror cult classics like Dazed and Confused. Again, I have no idea I have
not heard about the awesome going-ons in Phoenixville’s classic theater until
this night and am definitely catching that screening of Dream Master before the
summer’s out. Bonus points for the evening were meeting some very cool people
including Mary Bastian and Tom Bryce of S*** Movie Fest fame.

Post-Popcorn, we headed back home in even worse weather (at
night, no less) to my crib where we continued to drink beer and play video
games. WWE ’12 was in the machine, so we jammed on that for a bit.

The next day was Adventure Saturday, started by getting our
guests their first real Philly Cheesecakes, I mean Cheesesteaks, and Broccoli
Bites. Jules and I have been searching months to locate and try some Bud
Limearitas yet have always come up empty. Well this establishment had them in
stock, so we finally got to try them for ourselves. And the verdict is that
they are delicious and pack a wallop at the same time! Definitely packed a buzz
even after I devoured my cheesecake, I mean cheesesteak.

My mother-in-law had some tables in a large garage sale
nearby, so we all went over there to see if we could find some warez. After I
found a replacement Seemed like a dud until we got to this one section that a
mass of old comic books sealed in plastic for dirt cheap. We all managed to
find something we liked. For Kristy, it was two editions of Bill & Ted’s
Excellent Adventure and Total Recall, John found a comic entitled Satan’s
Six…guest starring Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th (or is it Vorhees?) and I found these gems
which I am surprised I never heard of before: Mr. T & T-Force. I need to
speak in depth about these suckers in another post, but I will leave you with
this picture of "Fool Pitiness" for now…

Next, we headed to the city and got off on the stop near
where the Wizard World Comic Con was being held that weekend. Of course we got
to see fun sights such as women dressed up as slutty Wonder Woman and Supergirl,
for example, before meeting up with Kevin Miller of House of Mysterious Secrets, a kind gentleman who is the only living soul I know
besides myself that purchased an Evil Dead 2 shirt from the back of a Fangoria
magazine in the 80’s.

After checking out a cupcake joint to appease the ladies, we
had drinks and grub at El Vez (while somehow skipping the “Tito Santana”-named guacamole
dish) before piling into Fergie’s Pub. It was Philly Beer Week (isn't it always "beer" week in the city?), so the city was filled
with usual brew that are normally so common, such as Duvel. This one is a
personal favorite beer of mine with the highest rating ever on my Booze Reviews
(which desperately needs to make a comeback) and one I have endlessly promoted
to John several times in the past. So like the Ultimate Warrior used to say
about the planets, stars and moons all aligning…we had to have one…or two.

We headed back to my house and tore into some specialty beer
that the Squires’ were nice enough to bring along, including another one of my
top choices La Fin Du Monde (muchos thankos, Boots!). Somehow we ended up
playing WWE ’12 again, talking about Holliston and Adam Green, and chatting
about Tony Todd’s ram-page once again before crashing out for the night. Team
Squires headed back early to avoid traffic, so I took Kristy to a local
breakfast joint before parting ways.

Overall, it was great to hang with them since work has
thwarted my last couple of chances to see them at Monster-Mania. The interesting part about this particular visit
is that they are the first pals of mine I met from the Bloggersphere to
actually Enter the Man-Cave (#vintagereference #mindoutofthe gutter). As
always, the time went by in an eye blink, because time flies when you are
getting hammered and spending the weekend with such good-spirited friends…and
the only ones to properly spell my first name or appreciates the genius that is a Kamala shirt.

If you want to read another view of this weekend excursion and some more screen caps,
please check out John’s blog over at Freddy in Space.